As always, this lesson is not intended to be professional advice. This is simply lesson material for ESL students in an introductory Economics and Finance class. Posted here for their use or for helping other students.

This is not intended to be an advanced, in-depth economic analysis of consumer surplus. However, in teaching the concept to my students, I discovered that most websites and teaching materials did not explain the material very well. They all wanted to start with Consumer Surplus is X – Y . . . and oh, by the way, it’s also the area of a triangle! 😀

Which sucks, because it does not explain why it is the area of the triangle.

So for all the beginning 101 ESL students, I hope this helps explain it!

Part #1 ~ Vocabulary

Buyer (n.) ~ A person who exchanges their money in return for a product. Someone who purchases the product. 买方 – Mǎifāng

Competition (n.) ~ A situation where two or more people are struggling to claim the same resource. In economics and business, sellers of substitutes are competing for the same buyers. 竞争 – Jìngzhēng

Consumer Surplus (n.) ~ The difference between the price the buyer would have paid for a product and the price the buyer did pay for the product. 消费者过剩 – Xiāofèi zhě guòshèng

Demand Curve (n.) ~ A line showing the relationship between the number of products people want to buy and the price. The demand curve shows how many products are demanded at each price. 需求曲线 – Xūqiú qūxiàn

Discount (n.) ~ How much the seller has decreased the price from its original amount. Tommy changed the price of his bicycles from $400 to $300. This is a 25% discount. 折扣 – Zhékòu

Discount (v.) ~ To lower the price. When the seller lowers the price of a product in order to increase demand, they discount the price. 贱卖 – jiàn mài

Economic Value (n.) ~ The maximum price that a buyer would have paid for a product. The demand curve shows the economic value for each quantity. 经济价值 – Jīngjì jiàzhí

Law of Demand (n.) ~ The rule in economics that says when the price of a product goes up, the quantity demanded will go down. When the price of a product goes down, the quantity demanded will go up. 需求法则 -Xūqiú fǎzé

Market Demand (n.) ~ The total number of products that all buyers require. Usually shown on a Market Demand Curve demonstrating the relationship between the total quantity demanded and the price. 市场需求- Shìchǎng xūqiú

Market Price (n.) ~ The price of a product when it is sold / The price a buyer pays for a product and a seller gets for a product. 市场价格 – Shìchǎng jiàgé

Perfect Competition Market (n) ~ A market or industry where there are many buyers and many sellers. All are competing with each other for the best price in a market where there are many substitutes and the products are pretty similar. Companies in these markets have low market power and are usually price-taking. 完美的竞争 – Wánměi de jìngzhēng

Seller (n.) ~ Someone who offers a product in exchange for money. The person or company presenting a produce on the market for purchase. 卖家 – Màijiā

Total Consumer Surplus (n.) ~ Draw a triangle using the Demand Curve and the Market Price. Total Consumer Surplus is the area of that triangle. It is the total savings of all the buyers on the market. See Consumer Surplus. 消费者剩余总额 – Xiāofèi zhě shèngyú zǒng’é

Part #2 ~ What is Consumer Surplus?

The perfect competition 完美的竞争market is a beautiful creature full of amazing trends 趋势and patterns! In a perfect competition market, buyers and sellers can sometimes trade a product at a better price than they expected (预期).

Example #1: Timmy is interested in buying a soda (Coca Cola). Because Timmy is really thirsty, he takes 3¥ and goes to the store to look for a soda. Although Timmy is willing to pay 3¥ for the soda, he is very happy! He finds a discount 贱卖 where sodas are only 2.80¥ at Walmart. This means Timmy saved 0.20¥ for his drink! 😊

We call that 0.20¥ a Consumer Surplus (消费者过剩)! If a buyer pays a price lower than the maximum he was willing to pay, he has a consumer surplus. By definition: Consumer Surplus is the difference between what the buyer wouldhave paid and what the buyerdid pay.

Example #2: Tara wants to buy a bicycle. She goes to the store and sees that a bicycle is 400¥. That seems like a good price. She goes home and works and works and works and works. One month later, she has 400¥. She goes to the store again, but now the bicycle is on sale! Discount! The new price is 350¥! 😊 Yay! She has a Consumer Surplus of 50¥!

Notice: Both the buyer and the seller think the Consumer Surplus is important. For the buyer, the more money they save, the happier they are. The more they save, the more they are willing to buy. Remember, this market has competition竞争 because there are many buyers and many sellers. So, if Company A offers the buyer a bigger consumer surplus than Company B—the buyer will shop at Company A. This is good for the buyer, but bad for Company B. So Company B will be watching—if Company A has a sale and gives the buyer big savings, Company B will also probably offer a sale in the future also. We see this all the time—the same product is on sale at 5 different stores.

Part #3 ~ How to Find Consumer Surplus for One Product?

Consumer Surplus = Economic Value – Market Price

Oh dear. . . . new words.

Let’s start at the beginning. Economic Value (. 经济价值) is the maximum price the buyer would have paid. For Timmy, that price for one soda was 3¥. For Tara, that price for one bicycle was 400¥.

But in economics 经济学, where do we find this number? How can you know what the maximum price is that a buyer would have paid? How do you know how much the buyer was willing to give to the seller?

THE DEMAND CURVE!

The demand curve 需求曲线 is a line that tells us how many products a buyer is willing to buy at a certain price. It is the price per product.

Example: In the picture below:

If the price is $3.00, Timmy will buy one soda (that is the maximum price Timmy is willing to pay for Soda #1). Economic Value for Soda #1 = $3.00

If the price is $2.50, Timmy will buy two sodas (that is the maximum price Timmy is willing to pay for Soda #2). Economic Value for Soda #2 = $2.50

If the price is $1.00, Timmy will buy 5 sodas (that is the maximum price Timmy is willing to pay for Soda #5). Economic Value for Soda #5 = $1.00

This line shows us an important economic 经济学 rule called the Law of Demand. This rule says that if the Quantity Demanded is going up, then the price must go down. Each extra soda that Timmy buys is worth a little bit less to him. ☹

So, what is Market Price (市场价格)? Market Price is the actual price for the product that the buyer paid. For Timmy, this price was 2.80¥ for one soda. For Tara, the Market Price was 350¥.

In the graph above:

Economic Value for Soda #1 = $3.00

Market Price for Soda #1 = $1.00

Consumer Surplus for Soda #1 = $3.00 – $1.00 = $2.00

Economic Value for Soda #2 = $2.50

Market Price for Soda #2 = $1.00

Consumer Surplus for Soda #2 = $2.50 – $1.00 = $1.50

Notice! Important!It is true that if Timmy buys more soda, will save a larger total amount of money. If he buys only one soda, he just saved $2.00. But if he bought 2 sodas, he would have saved ($2.00 +$1.50 = $3.50). This is why your parents always buy more if something is on sale at the store. But the savings for each extra soda goes down, down, down. He saves a little bit less for each extra soda he buys.

Here’s the problem — most companies do not just have one buyer (Timmy). Most companies sell thousands of products to thousands of buyers. Some sell millions of products a day!

This is why we don’t always use Economic Value – Market Price. If you only had two products, that might be pretty easy. But if you have 500,000 products it gets harder and harder to do EV – MP for every single one.

So we have something special called Total Consumer Surplus (消费者剩余总额). The total consumer surplus is the TOTAL savings for all the buyers.

To find Total Consumer Surplus, we need to start with a new line called the Market Demand Curve (市场需求).

Let’s say that we have 3 airplane companies: United Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, and Korean Air. They all want to buy Soda for their airplanes.

United Airlines

China Eastern

Korean Air

$0.00

500

550

425

$0.50

400

450

325

$1.00

300

350

225

$1.50

200

250

125

$2.00

100

150

25

$2.50

0

50

0

$3.00

0

0

0

Now we could try to write three demand curves and do a lot of math.

But much easier is making a new demand curve based on the total number of products all three companies are willing to buy.

$0.00

1475

$0.50

1175

$1.00

875

$1.50

575

$2.00

275

$2.50

50

$3.00

0

The Market Demand Curve would look like this:

Now, we have a “Demand Curve” to work with for Total Consumer Surplus. So let’s start!

Step 1: Market Price.

I say that Market Price was $1.00! Draw a line showing how many products were purchased at one dollar on our graph.

From the purple line, we know that when the price was $1.00 the demand for sodas was 875 bottles for all three companies.

Step 2: Let’s cover up everything after 875 bottles with Yellow Marker . . . . nobody bought those so we won’t count bottles 876 through 1475. For Consumer Surplus, you can forget about those bottles.

Step 3: Now, the Market Price was $1.00 per bottle. This means they paid $875 to the company. Let’s fill in everything below the purple line with Purple Marker to show how much money the buyers lost.

Step 4: Okay. . . . now we can do Consumer Surplus the very, very, very long way. This means drawing a line from the Economic Value to to the Market Price for every single one of the 875 bottles of soda that we sold.

As always, this lesson is not intended to be professional advice. This is simply lesson material for ESL students in an introductory Economics and Finance class. Posted here for their use or for helping other students.

Part #1 ~ Vocabulary

Short Sell (v.) ~ X borrows stock from a stock broker, sells the stock, buys it back, and then returns the stock to the stock broker. 卖空 – Mài kōng

Shares (n.) When part of a company’s ownership is divided into equal portions, each portion is called a share. Each share gives the owner part of the ownership, profits, and a vote. A piece of the Stock. 股 – Gǔ

Loan (n.) ~ Money that A borrows from B and must eventually pay back. Often includes an extra “interest”息 fee. 贷 – Dài

Stock Market (n.) ~ A place (either a physical market or an online market) where buyers and sellers trade in company shares. 股市 – gǔ shì

Part #2 ~ What is Short Selling

Short selling is where:

Step 1: You borrow 借 some shares 股份 of Company A from your broker (证券经纪人). Notice that you did NOT buy, so it is similar to a loan. You must pay the broker back the money for the stock later.

Step 2: You sell the stock to someone else.

Step 3: You buy the stock back again and give it back to the broker.

Part #3 ~ Why or Why Not Short Sell?

If you short sell correctly and are successful, you can make a lot of money doing this.

But if you want to make money, then the stock price 股价 must go down between Step 2 and Step 3.

If the stock price 股价 goes up between Step 2 and Step 3, you will lose money.

If you buy long, you just use your own money to buy the stock.

Part #4 ~ Examples

Marilyn’s Flowers (ABCD) is selling their shares at $25 for one share.

Michael believes that the price of ABCD’s shares is inflated (充气) and is too high right now. The shares are not worth that much money. He also believes the price is going todecrease in the future (usually very soon).

Samuel believes that the price of ABCD’s shares is not going to decrease in the future. Instead, he believes that the price will increase.

EXAMPLE #1 (Buying Long)

Samuel goes to the Stock Market (股市) and uses his own money to buy one share for $25.

Situation A: Michael is right. Two days later, the stock price goes down to $10.

Samuel’s Revenue: $10

Samuel’s Cost: $25

Samuel’s Profit: (-$15) Samuel lost his money.

*Notice that in this situation, the maximum amount of money Samuel can lost is $25. Even if the stock price 股价 falls to $0, Samuel will only lose $25.

Situation B: Samuel is right. Two days later, the stock price goes up to $45.

Samuel’s Revenue: $45

Samuel’s Cost: $25

Samuel’s Profit $20

*Notice that in this situation, Samuel’s profit could go very high as long as the price keeps going up. It is better for Samuel if the price goes up and bad if the price goes down. But his only risk is $25.

EXAMPLE #2 (Short Selling)

Instead of using his own money, Michael goes to Thomas & Sons (his stockbroker) and borrows a share from them. He goes to the Stock Market (股市) and sells that share for $25.

Situation A: Michael is right. Two days later, the stock price goes down to $10. Michael buys one share for $10 and gives it to Thomas & Sons to pay them back for what he borrowed.

Michael’s Cost: $10.

Michael’s Revenue: $25

Michael’s Profit: $15

Situation B: Samuel is right. Two days later, the stock price goes up to $45. Michael has to buy one share at $45 to give to Thomas & Sons to pay them back for what he borrowed.

Michael’s Cost: $45

Michael’s Revenue: $25

Michael’s Profit: (-$20) ~ Michael actually lost $20.

*Notice that in this situation, Michael could lose a lot of money (far more than the $25 he earned. If the price keeps going up, he would lose more and more. For example, if the price goes up to $100, Michael will lose $75. The risk for Michael is more than the risk for Samuel.

Don’t forget, the Chinese translations come from the Chinese students rather than professional translators. While I believe they are accurate, you may want to consult professionals before using them for official documents. This is mainly intended to contribute to daily conversation between English speaking Companies and Chinese companies.

Abbreviations:

v. = Verbn. = Nounadj. = Adjectiveadv. = Adverb

(c) All Rights Reserved. You are welcome to use this material. However, if you do end up using these definitions in your material (educational, informational, or professional), please include either a link to this webpage or the following reference: Blessing, Olivia. “Business Vocabulary with Chinese Translations.” DeceptivelyBlonde.com. This is for two reasons: 1) I’d like to share the resource with others. 2) I created these definitions myself. Thanks!

Bar Chart (n.) A way of showing information on a chart 图表. The chart shows the information divided up into rectangles. Each rectangle represents one factor and shows the “amount” of that factor. Allows readers to compare and contrast different things. 条形图 – Tiáo xíng tú

Capital (n.) ~ Wealth (usually money, but also includes other assets) used to buy the inputs and materials used in order to create products. The term has different meanings depending on whether you are an accountant, economist, or financial adviser. 资本 – zī běn

Graph (n.) ~ A way of showing the relationship between two factors in a picture or image form. Two lines, one called “X” and one called “Y,” are each used to represent one factor. Lines can then be drawn to show the relationship between X and Y as they change. 曲线图 – qū xiàn tú

Input (n.) ~ Resources used to create a product . . . technology, labor, raw materials, etc. Only materials used to make the product, not those used to sell, ship, etc. 用于创建产品的资源

Loan (n.) ~ Money that A borrows from B and must eventually pay back. Often includes an extra “interest”息 fee. 贷 – Dài

Marginal (adj.) ~ In Business & Economics – A factor of or something that results from small or little changes. Often the profit, cost, or revenue associated with having or making “one more” of something. 边际 – biān jì

Marginal Cost (n.) ~ The cost that comes when you make one more product. 边际成本 – biān jì chéng běn

Marginal Profit (n.) ~ The profit (revenue – cost) that comes when you make one more product. 边际利润 – Biān jì lì rùn

Marginal Revenue (n.) ~ The revenue that comes when you make one more product. 边际报酬 – biān jì bào chóu

Negative Correlation (n.) The situation when two things (X & Y) are related to one another so that if X increases, Y decreases. If X decreases, Y increases.(X & Y go in opposite directions).In economics, we often say two things are “inversely related” if there is a negative correlation. For example, if Price goes up then Quantity Demanded will go down. There is a negative correlation and they are inversely related. 负相关 –– Fù xiāngguān

Output (n.) ~ The number of products created. 产量 – Chǎnliàng

Pie Chart (n.) ~ A way of showing information on a chart 图表. The chart is a circle divided into pieces, each representing a percent (%) of the whole “pie.“ 饼形图 – Bǐng xíng tú

Positive Correlation (n.) ~ The situation when two things (X & Y) are related to one another so that if X increases, Y also increases. If X decreases, Y also decreases. 正相关 – Zhèng xiāngguān

Rate (n.) ~ 1. The speed at which something happens. For example the “Turnover Rate” 周转率 can tell us how often employees leave a company and new ones have to be hired. 率 – lǜ 2. The percentage of X compared to Y. For example, the “Tax Rate” is how much of the Revenue (Y) is used for Taxes (X). 比率 – bǐ lǜ

Scatter Plot (n.) A way of showing information on a chart or graph. A “Scatter Plot” is a graph where the information does not make a straight line 直线. Instead it is “scattered” (疏散) around the graph. 散点图 – Sàn diǎn tú

Short Sell (v.) ~ X borrows stock from a stock broker, sells the stock, buys it back, and then returns the stock to the stock broker. 卖空 – Mài kōng